I have seen a commercial two times and each time it makes me want to scream! I just want to say, to someone other than my husband, that a toy that reads books to your children will not instill a love for reading in your child. Our culture is so battery operated that even reading to our children can be passed on to something else...not even someone else...something else.
To be honest, it just makes me sad. We have a chair. We have met a number of people that we have grown to love, and we have gone to some of the sweetest and faraway locations via our chair and quality literature. I understand that people are busy, I understand that not everyone has a chair...but I'm up to my ears with advertising that is preaching to parents that a battery operated, noisy TOY can do more for children than the very people that God has entrusted the child with.
Julia wants her hair in braids like Betsy (from our favorite series Betsy-Tacy) and Anson's first friends when he learned how to read were none other than Frog and Toad. Ella chooses the Bible and I just want something that we can enjoy together.
Maybe you would love to read to your children, but you don't know where to start. There is a book called Honey for a Child's Heart, it's a book list. It's a wonderful collection of quality literature that will ignite a love for reading. We've met Stuart Little, Charlotte, Wilbur, and Louis the Swan, all E.B. White's genius. My kids love them and still talk about them.
So, I do not wish to be condemning or arrogant. I just want to say that holiday advertising is selling us a lot of worthless crap that doesn't do near what a library card and a cozy spot will do. And it's free. Avoid the batteries, buy a book...you'll be so glad you did.
*Just for fun...please share some of the books that you have enjoyed with your children that you would recommend.
9 comments:
Since my girls are both really young still, we have yet to discover some of the treasures you mentioned. Some of Adelle's faves are: Guess How Much I Love You, anything Winnie The Pooh, and Sandra Boynton is a fave among both girls. Adelle also has a subscription to BabyBug and it is the highlight of her month when a new one arrives in the mail! Evie likes anything I'll let her chew on... which is not much in the book department. :) She does love the Touch and Feel books, though.
And can I just say that a few good books from the library makes Adelle's day and have helped us through several big things in life (like an upcoming move, for instance). Books have a way of explaining things that sometimes Mommies can't find the right words for. :)
I have some favorites: You are My I Love You, Goodnight Moon, The Chicka Chicka Boom Boom series (because it is TECHNICALLY a series of letters, numbers, time, etc), Bad Kitty, Poor Puppy (not only teaches letters and numbers, but manners too!), The Kissing Hand, A Pocket Full of Kisses (the "sequel" of The Kissing Hand), The Punchinello series from Max Lucado (You Are Special, Your Special Gift, Best Of All, etc), Sarah Morton's Day (a great book for girls - a day in the life of a pilgrim girl!), Storytime with the Millers (great book on learning lessons!), Baby Bat's Lullaby, Bear Feels Sick, Drummer Hoff and Me and My Dad....most of these are the kind of books to sit and read with your kids.
Hannah's into fairies, as always, so we like the Daisy Meadow series of Fairy books.
As you can see, we love to read, so there won't be that reading toy here. Even the Leap Pad wasn't ever big here as far as reading.
so true! we love Anne of Green Gables, American Girls (Kit and Samantha are Madelyn's favorites), among many other girly books (what do you expect from a house full of girls, lol!)
I cannot tell you my newest favorite. It's going to be your family's Christmas present...
BTW, I actually played with one of those book-reading things in Walmart the other day. Immediately, the pen felt so cold and awkward. When I think of book reading, I think warm, cozy and imagination. Talk about "cheap imitations"!!!!
Oh..I love your post as Laura Beth and I love nothing more than sitting in our chair and reading books. She has her favorites. Biscuit Loves School (or anything with Biscuit), ABC's or Counting 123's (she has a major obsession with letters.. pretty cool though), The Bear Snores On, and The Lady With the Alligator Purse.
Hi Ali! I love reading with the boys, though it rarely happens with my 12 year old anymore. My 6 year old loves to read though. We are currently going through the Jesus Storybook Bible (for the second time), and he is so into non-ficton books right now. He would not even check out a library book at school last week because they had only fiction out on the table for them to choose from. This week he brought home a book about power boats, and his favorite book at home is Monster Trucks. Gotta love boys!
Great post Ali, and I know the commercial you are talking about..the one with the giant frog!.lol...poor kids could be easily convinced. Come to think of it I havn't seen a commericial for a bookstore in a really long time!!! With my dd7 we have stepped inside The Secret Garden, met a Little PRriness, been swept aeay to Narnia; our favorite hiding place, we have taken trips in magic tree houses, loved on Charlotte and Wilbur, we have dove head first into the world of Robert McCloskey and longed to visit there in real life. We have learned about history and bugs and places far away. Right now she is memorizing a new poem...she knows it better than me but it goes something like this
A book I think is very like a little golden door that takes you into places you have never been before.
There is more but you get the jist. Thanks for the cup of cold water.
Sheryl in GA
Velveteen Rabbit. Excellent book!
Being stationed in Germany we don't have to deal with the commericals, oh I'm so happy for that. Our 7 weeks in the states was enough of that junk to make me actually miss AFN, if for nothing else than it's commercial free!
Our favorite books...oh I couldn't name them all (we're a book loving family).
I'll Love You Forever, I'll Love you For Always (my favorite)
Three Little Pigs
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Charlotte's Web
Narnia series
You Are Special (Max Lucado)
I Love You This Much
The Bible
A book of kids poetry (I've gone blank on the name)
and Jacob's current favorite:
Where The Sidewalk Ends: Shel Silverstein
ok so that's just a very short list. We go through days where we read book after book. Emma, who's 15 months brings me book after book often for an hour or more straight and we reread them of course!
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